


Catharsis

by emcee857



Series: Obsession [2]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Catharsis, Escape, F/M, Hamprice, I'm Bad At Tagging, Kidnapping, Non-Consensual, hints at ordeal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 01:00:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21538702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emcee857/pseuds/emcee857
Summary: "Obsession" was initially meant as a stand alone story. It is decidedly not a happy story. This second part, which I felt I needed to write to get closure, is also not a happy story. It is one way that it might have ended, eventually.Warning: it hints at, though does not explicitly describe, some of the things that have happened as a consequence of "Obsession", and these are not good things. With serious consequences.
Relationships: Eliot Hampden/Chloe Price
Series: Obsession [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1552261
Kudos: 5





	Catharsis

Police officer Dan Wilson walked towards the front desk where he saw his colleague. “Paula, do you want another coffee?”

“Yes, I’d love that”, officer Quinn responded, being only briefly distracted from the paperwork she was filling in. She appreciated officer Wilson’s courtesy, and thought to herself what a joy it was to work with such a dedicated professional.

It was slightly after eight o’clock in the evening, and it was getting dark earlier than normal on this November day. It was raining on and off all day, and a mild storm was coming in from the Pacific.

After completing the last of the forms that she was processing, she looked around the front desk area. The police station had only just been renovated and everything still looked pristine, apart from the glass on the door right in front of her, which had gotten damaged when an unruly youth had thrown rocks at it to protest his friend being arrested for petty theft.

Officer Wilson returned from his trip to the coffee machine. “There you go, Paula”. She was just about to thank him, when a phone rang in one of the offices behind them. Officer Wilson went back to get it.

Suddenly, officer Quinn was startled when hearing a loud bang. Whilst turning her head towards the door she realized the front door had just been swung open with some force. It almost sounded like some glass had shattered.

Two figures had entered the police station. A larger, disheveled looking person wearing a hoodie seemingly carrying something, followed by a smaller figure. The larger figure was holding the smaller figure’s hand.

Officer Quinn stared at the approaching figures, and wondered what on earth was going on. Something about this scene alarmed her. And as the larger figure removed the hoodie, it was clear that this was a young woman, who looked like she was in shock.

The thing the young woman was carrying was actually a small child, and there was blood on her face as well as on her clothes. The young woman looked straight at officer Quinn. “I… I… think he’s dead… I killed him… I think… I’m not sure… my name is…”

The young woman seemed to have difficulty breathing, and words stopped coming out. Officer Quinn panicked. “DAN! DAN! Come out here, quick! NOW!”

Officer Wilson heard his colleague’s calls for aid. He cut off the phone call, promising to call back and quickly returned to the front desk area.

He stared at the young woman standing there with an open mouth. He immediately recognized her. More than four years ago, a group of students had been handing out missing person posters, one of them had given him one, and it was a case that had his special attention. A case that they had investigated in vain. Being forced to give up on the search because there were no clues whatsoever. No evidence. No traces. Nothing. Nada.

It had been almost like this young woman had disappeared from the face of the earth. He recalled how shattered her mother had been to lose her daughter after losing her husband to an accident only a few years earlier. The mother had since left town and moved to Seattle.

///

_ Not much later _

Officer Wilson introduced the woman who had arrived in the meantime. “Miss, this is counsellor Harris. She is going to help you. Are you ready to make your statement?”

“Not so fast, calm down, officer”, counsellor Harris interrupted. “Young lady, please understand, you are not under pressure, I’m here for you, to help you. We are here to help you. Maybe you want to go to the hospital first? The ambulance is already here”. She briefly glanced to the other side of the table where officer Wilson was sitting. He held his hands up as in indicating he was in agreement with the counsellor.

“Take any time you need. We’re trying to contact your mother. Detectives from Portland are coming here, officers are on their way to check out and secure the location you mentioned. If at any time you need a break, just say so. Officers Quinn and Morales are tending to the children. We will be taping this, to help with the investigation, do you object? You don’t have to do this if you don’t feel up for it.”

“It’s fine. I want to do this first”, the young woman stated, still breathing as if she’d just ran a marathon.

“Whenever you are ready, miss”, counsellor Harris said. “You can make the statement any way you want to. I will ask some questions as well, if you want the officer to leave, then he will do so.”

“No, he can stay.”

Counsellor Harris continued. “If you want me to sit elsewhere instead of next to you, just mention it.”

“It’s okay.”

“Good. Let’s begin. Please start with your name.”

“I am Chloe Elizabeth Price, and I was kidnapped more than four years ago by this psycho who thought I belonged to him.”

“You knew this man.”

“Man… if you can call him that… but yes I knew him. I think he considered himself my boyfriend, though I’m not sure if I ever considered it that.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“This psycho, who goes or used to go by the name of Eliot Hampden, and whose name I shall not mention again, and myself were in school together. I guess you could say that he and I have… had history. But no chemistry. Kind of sounds like a class schedule.”

Counsellor Harris noticed the table was shaking. She noticed that the young woman was still shivering. It was obviously not from the cold, and it was absolutely understandable. She put her arm around Chloe who briefly seemed to recoil at being touched. “I’m sorry, miss, I didn’t mean to frighten you”.

“No… thank you… I just have some real bad memories about being touched… but it’s fine.”

“I certainly understand. Again, anything you want, just mention it.”

“Let’s just get this over with.”

“You’re going great. Can you describe what happened the day you were kidnapped?”

“I was heading back home after seeing a concert at the Old Mill, I decided to take a shortcut through the forest. I didn’t notice he was there at all. He came out of nowhere, grabbing me from behind and trying to wrestle me to the ground. I screamed as loud as I could, tried to fight but he had the element of surprise which gave him the upper hand. I almost managed to get loose, I think, but as I stumbled, he fell on top of me. Then, he smothered my face with a rag and I must have passed out. When I woke up, I was handcuffed to a bed, and gagged.”

“A forest fire started not long after you disappeared. The Old Mill burned down that day.”

“He told me. He set a fire to conceal what he did. He told me he had been preparing everything for months."

“Did you know who had taken you? Or where you were?”

“Oh, yes. The same moment I woke up, I saw him… sitting there… next to the bed. He immediately started telling me where I was, how much he loved me, and that he had decided he couldn’t wait any longer to protect me and start a family.  
He told me we were in a converted shelter below his house, and that this would be _"our"_ … his words… love nest. I was trying to break free from the handcuffs but it was useless. He was very meticulous about everything he did. I never had an opportunity to escape before today. Well… maybe I did once or twice but I was too frightened… especially after…”

Chloe held her hands in front of her face and started sobbing. Counsellor Harris immediately put her arm around Chloe again, knowing she was receptive to it. “It’s alright. Take your time. Do you want more coffee? Anything to eat? A break? Just mention it.”

“No… no…. I want to continue. Please.”

“It’s fine. You were mentioning being frightened, which you had every right to be.”

Chloe sighed. She breathed deep a few times and seemed to counsellor Harris to be calming down. The counsellor felt admiration for Chloe’s ability to go through with giving her statement and how she was answering the questions.

“I was afraid that I would fail to knock him out and that he would retaliate. I was scared for myself and later also for my children.”

Both officer Wilson and counsellor Harris looked at each other, knowing what was coming next.

Chloe continued. “On my eighteenth birthday he brought a package with him. It contained a blue dress, which he said was going to be my wedding dress. The next day he forced me to wear it, and then he made me go through some kind of weird ceremony in which he declared us to be husband and wife. That evening, he… well… he said it was going to be our wedding night… I think you know what that means. I was not given any choice.”

Silence filled the room. For a minute or two, which seemed to all present in the room to be more than an hour, only the sound of breathing, shivering and sobbing was heard. Chloe buried her head against counsellor Harris’ body, who caressed her back and neck in return.

///

The counsellor was obviously concerned about Chloe’s mental state. “Do you want to continue tomorrow?”

“No, I prefer to do it now. Like I said before, I want this over with.”

“It’s your call. Okay. Remember, you are under no obligation to give this statement or to answer any questions. You are in control here. If you want to go to the hospital…”

“Later. Thank you. Once my children were born, a year-and-a-half apart, he started getting more agitated. He was accusing me of not loving him enough. He got angry more and more often, and one day he beat me real hard. I think I still have some bruises from that. That was the moment I decided I was going to escape. I was so frightened but I knew I had to do it. He was on the edge and I feared he was going to kill me and maybe the children too, if I did not get him first. He was starting to drink more and more.”

“How did you finally manage to escape?”

“He locked me and the children up in the bedroom this morning. Early in the afternoon he showed up again, with a bottle in his hand. He put the bottle down. He said he was going to punish me for not showing enough gratitude for all of his love and protection, which is what he called it.  
I’d never seen him so angry. I’d never seen him so drunk. Not even close. He never lost control of himself before today. I immediately felt the adrenaline rush. It was a now or never moment. As he swung at me, I dodged him and picked up the bottle, turned around and smashed it over his head. He stumbled and seemed stunned.”

“What happened next?”

“It all went so fast. I grabbed the chair next to the bed and hit him with that. And again, and again. I didn’t count the number of times I hit him. I just did, until he stopped moving. Then I took the keys, which he had never before failed to put in the safe where I could not get them, and the kids, dressed properly and we ran. As fast as we could. Then we arrived here.”

The door was opened, and another officer was coming in, who put a note on the table. Officer Wilson quickly read it, then looked at Chloe and counsellor Harris.

“You are safe, miss, he is dead.”

Chloe closed her eyes and smiled. Maybe it wasn’t right to feel good about such news, even if the person in question had put her through a terrible ordeal. But she didn’t care.

Instead… it… felt… _cathartic_.


End file.
